Maybe a little off-topic, but if you enjoy Theme Time Radio Hour, I recommend you try out Elvis Costello's new "talk" television show, which premiered December 3 on the Sundance Channel. "Talk" is in quotes, because it's as much a music as talk show.

On Wednesday's show, the guest was Elton John, who by the way, is a producer of Spectacle. Now, I'm not that big a fan of Mr. John, as the NY Times would call him, and the fact that he was the first guest on a show he's backing financially made me wonder whether we we were going to get a millennium update of Sammy Davis & Company, with Costello and guest spending the show telling each other, "You're beautiful, man," "No, you're beautiful, man."

But Costello's interview with John was fascinating. Who woulda thunk that Laura Nyro and Leon Russell were major influences on Elton John? Well, maybe Russell, but Laura Nyro? But Laura Nyro, yes, as Elton John demonstrates the Nyro-ish chord changes of Burn Down the Mission.

As I said, the whole show reminded me of TTRH, two people talking who you can tell love music in all shapes and forms, and who you can tell spend a lot of their life thinking about music even when they're not performing it. Upcoming shows have Lou Reed (next week), Smokey Robinson, and Jakob Dylan among others. If you can pick up the Sundance Channel, I'd give the show a shot.

Anybody with COMCAST can find this episode, and the second (featuring Lou Reed) on the COMCAST ON DEMAND option (usually click Channel One.) The Elton John episode was great, and the Lou Reed one is equally interesting. You don't have to be a fan of either Elton or Lou to appreciate this show. Elvis is intelligent, informed, but (perhaps most important) humble when it comes to just sitting down with people and talking about music. The duet of Elvis and Lou at the end of that episode on a song called "It was a perfect day" (I think that's the title) is amazing. A list of upcoming guests can be found on the Sundance website. I can only hope Tom Waits eventually makes his way onto this show.

The first episode aired on Channel 4 here in the UK with very little fanfare and an awful post-midnight Monday timeslot.

For us it was the Police on the night before their 'final' gig, due to air in the US early next year. The show was divided into four segments - one for each member and one with all of them on the stage together talking plus a couple of songs.

Joined: Tue February 5th, 2008, 15:43 GMTPosts: 5423Location: where there ain't no police; ain't no need to escape from what is, only spirits at ease

Are you too young to remember the 1-up mushrooms from Super NES?! Probably so.

To get us back on topic, that would be cool to get tickets, anybody have the details? I read the review of the show in the New Yorker and the writer's only complaint was that the audience was too white and middle-aged. Wanted to see some piercing and purple hair, I think.

Most of the shows were shot at the Apollo in Harlem, and I think the audience is by invite-only. A few of the earlier shows were shot at another studio, which, as I remember, they had to vacate because it was booked by one of the networks for coverage of the U.S. presidential elections.

Season One was comprised of 13 episodes, all of which have already been shot. No word yet about whether they're filming a Season 2.

My pleasure. All good researchers have more than a touch of OCD. It bothered me that I couldn't remember where the earlier shows had been taped, so I went back and looked, and found it was the famous Studio 8H, home of "Saturday Night Live." Personally, I think the Apollo Theater a better venue.

Fans of the show might be interested in this NY Times article from Nov. `08 which details its genesis (Costello had talked about doing a talk show for years but nothing came of it until he guest-hosted a "Late Show" when David Letterman was out with shingles); its format (Sundance wanted guests along the lines of Beyonce); and its future...

Quote:

Though Mr. John is already talking about another season of “Spectacle” — he has lined up Eminem as a guest — the executives at Sundance are more measured. The show is a co-production of four studios in three countries, including Channel Four in Britain and the international distributor Fremantle Media (“American Idol”). “It’s the four sets of financiers who will have a big post-mortem once the show goes on the air,” Ms. Michalchyshyn said.

Once inside, it became clear that the fan club people were being treated well. We had the first 20 or so rows of the theatre to ourselves. People from Sundance and other channels, as well as the corporate sponsors were in the balcony or in the back. We were certainly in for a treat.

The best bet seems to be to monitor the official Elvis Costello web site. See...

http://www.elviscostello.com/news/news.php?uid=21. There's a link to a sign-up page for the free email newsletter. And I guess if you really want to go to a Spectacle show - given that there's a Season 2 - your best bet would be to lay out $35 and become a "Gold Member" of elviscostello.com, where among other things you'll be given...

"Access to pre-sale ticketing before the general public" and "Access to special contests and giveaways" See...

... and there's a TTRH connection. Tennessee Thomas helps her father back Elvis on his opening number. Tennessee made a call-in appearance on the "Something" episode. Wonder if she did the recording while she was in NYC for the gig.

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